Wed Jun 09, 2021 1:45 am
Installed the new beta:
1. I can reproduce the bug that Peter linked above, the 25mm f/1.7 doesn't like it when Presets are changed back and forth. Possibly some bad state when changing presets?
2. The peaking is too low, even with the sharpest lenses. With vintage lenses, peaking is just not there, making it impossible to focus. Many others have reported on this issue in the last month on this forum. Peaking with gen5 needs to be much, much stronger.
3. Olympus MFT launch lenses from the late 2000s, don't autofocus. The 17mm f/2.8 sometimes won't even let me manually focus. The focus ring just acts dead (the BMPCC 4k's MFT mount not providing enough power?). If I power-cycle the 4k a few times, I can then manually focus (AF remains no-no). The same thing happens with the similarly old 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 zoom lens (the one with the 37mm filter thread).
3. Viltrox speedbooster still doesn't work when using its previous, stable firmware: Not only IRIS doesn't work with any EF lens, but also IS doesn't work either. The Viltrox comes online only for about 1/3 of a second showing IRIS info, and then it goes dead. It seems that either the Viltrox crashes, or it doesn't get enough power from the bmpcc4k's mount. Given that some people have mentioned that after LIVE-unmounting and re-mounting the adapter it comes to life, it's possible that the 4k does not provide the adapter with enough power to the lenses at boot time to operate. In fact, in the past, many people had problems with the IS of their EF lenses dropping in and out using that combo (IS would work for 3-4 seconds, then go off for 3-4 more seconds and so on). Which probably means that not enough power is given to run the adapter and EF lenses. Could you please test this with a Viltrox and an IS EF lens? For me, the Viltrox working and the focus peaking are my most important issues so far. Currently, Viltrox's "updated" firmware that makes it work with the bmpcc4k's v7.3 is a hack on their part, so I rather not install it. I rather stay with their stable firmware.
4. The Sigma 16mm f/1.4 worked ok.
After my testing, and while I may be way off in my estimation, it feels to me that all the lens problems people are reporting are mount power issues, rather than "true" incompatibility issues. The old Olympus lenses that exhibited the problems I described were the first in the MFT line, so as being older lenses, they did probably require more power than later, more optimized lenses. Same for Viltrox and Metabones, these are "heavy" adapters in terms of what they're doing, and how much complex software they run, so it's possible that they require more power than absolute minimum described by the MFT protocol. It's possible that in v7.3, the power distribution was adjusted ever so slightly, impacting some lenses. Is it possible to give the mount a tiny bit more power in the next beta to test this theory?
Update: I tested these lenses with an internal battery on the 4k btw. Haven't tested with 12V or USB power.
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